For those of you reading this, without having heard the conversations that circulate in my unit, I have been dubbed a dwarf. There is some irony in this as I am not short, have no beard, and am not very good with metal working– HOWEVER, I have an avarice for rocks that is deeply tied to the construction of walls which puzzle me more and more as we excavate and reveal their surfaces to the light of day for the first time in many hundreds of years. Even toiling in the sunniest blazing corner of the unit, the rocks goad me with their secrets that they are not yet willing to share. Are the rocks of the baulk hiding stairs? Plaster?? Mosaics?!? Is the confusing construction of the wall on the southeast end of the unit built in repair of something that had been there originally or built over to change or cover up the original? Was this an entryway into the room adjacent (Audrey’s unit) or did this lead to somewhere else entirely? Alas my questions will likely never all be answered.
I do take some solace in the fact that as a dwarf, I am known to keep digging until I find what I’m looking for or find a beast of shadow and fire in the depths (Note to any Balrog in the area– you are super cool but please don’t show up in my unit because I am not a magic savvy wizard with the ability to rise again as a different but same person, thanks). In all seriousness, I am very curious as we get to the bottom of our baulk unit what we will find. We will inevitably connect two spaces (ACNS7D and ACNS6D) but we may also find something unexpected. More questions are always rising as we continue to excavate: Where was this entrance supposed to go? What is original? What are the stones in the floor? Do they continue elsewhere? Are they just holding back the bedrock? The largest question I am consistently asking myself is WHY?? Why did the original builders decide to build this way? What were they using each space for, before the times changed and new people modified the home to suit their needs? Why was each space used the way it was and not used in some other manner? Why do we care about it at all?? Some of these questions may never be answered, but they are fun to ponder while I entertain myself by extracting secrets from silent stones in the earth and walls of my unit.